Tension attachment for bed-springs.



No. 738,421. PATENTBD SEPT. 8, 1903..

G. B. DISTELHURST. TENSIONA ATTAGHMENT PoR BED SPRINGS,

APPLICATION FILED vNOV. 7, 1902.

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No'. 738,421.. l1.?-1TEf1fI-1Tril). SEPT. 8,1903.

G. E. DISTBLIULME.. TENSION ATTACHMENT.' PoR BED Saunas.

APPLICATION. '.EIIhED NGV. 7, 1902.

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ivo. 738,421.

UNITED STATES Patented September 8, 1903.'.

PATENT EEIoE.

GEORGE E. DisTELHU'EsT, OE PoTTsvitLE, PENNsYLvANiA.

SPECIFICATION forming part. of Letters Patent No. 738,421, dated september 8, 190s.

Application iled November 7, 1902. Serial No. 130,405. (No model.)

To all whom t may concern:

Beit known that I, GEORGE E. DIsTELHUEsr, a citizen of the United States, residingat Pottsville, in the county of Schuylkill and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Tension Attachments for Bed-Springs; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention has relation to spring-beds; and it consists of certain novel features of combination and construction of parts, the preferred form whereof will be hereinafter clearly set forth, and pointed out in the claims.

The object of my invention, among others,

is to provide a simple though reliably efficient attachment designed for completely restoring the tension of a spring-bed of the usual wovenwire design, whereby an old worn-out springbed may be made practically as good as new.

`A further object of myinvention is to prol vide a simple form of attachment complete in itself which any person can readily apply upon a spring-bed of any pattern or style and establish any desired degree of tension, thereby making the woven-wire fabric employed to support the mattress as taut and rigid as when the same came from the-factory.

Other objects and advantages will be here- I linafter made clearly apparent, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which are made a part of this application, and in which- Figure l shows my invention complete as applied to use upon an ordinary spring or woven-wire bed. Fig. 2 shows a side elevation thereof. Fig. 3 shows a sectional view illustrating the end section of the bed-frame as being formedof wood. Fig. 4 illustrates lanother form of construction for my tension device. Fig. 5 illustrates the bolt employed to secure the desired degree of tension as being provided with a hooked terminal instead of a head, as illustrated in Fig. 1. Figs. 6, 7, 8, and 9 illustrate -preferred forms of construction which may be adopted for imparting a frictional surface or grasp to the clamping-plates employed by me to engage a portion of the woven-wire fabric to be stretched.

In order to conveniently and readily designate all of the various details of my invention and accessories deemed necessary to illustrate a practical application thereof to use, numerals will be employed, the same numeral applying to a similar part throughout the several views.

Referring in detail to the various parts of my invention, l indicates the headpiece, and 2 illustrates the side rails, of an ordinary bedframe as commonly formed of angle-iron, it being understood that my invention is also equally applicable upon any form of bedframe, whether of Wood or metal, as ordinarily found in the market.

As will be seen, the woven-wire fabric 3 is connected to the headpiece or end section l by the clam ping-plate 4, and when the bed-frame and its accompanying woven Wire fabric leaves the factory said fabric is disposed so that it will rigidly extend from the foot to the head and will possess the requisite degree of rigidity or tension; but it is well known that after being in use a shorter or longer period of time, as the case may be, said woven fabric will lose its rigidity and will become more or less sagged as incident to the weight placed.

thereon, and it is for the purpose of restoring the required degree of rigidity that my invention has been devised, and it will be observed that my tension device may be very quickly applied to use,inasmuch as the clamp ing-plates c'and 5 are disposed parallel with each other and are made of the proper width and length, as will be hereinafter more clearly set forth.

It will be obvious that the plates 4 and 5 may be made of such length as to extend en.- tirely across the bed from side to side; but it is thought that best results will follow when said plates are of such length as will necessitate the employment of three Or four pairs thereof, as illustrated in Fig. 1, inasmuch as the middle section of the woven fabric may be more greatly sagged than the edges thereof, and the severalindividual clamping members may be independently adjusted, as will be obvious.

The clamping members 4: and 5 are provided With registering apertures throughout their length, and said apertures are designed to receive the locking-bolts 6, each of which is provided with a nut upon its lower end,

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whereby a portion of the woven-wire fabric interposed between the plates 4 and 5 may be very tightly clamped or engaged by said plates. The said plates 4 and 5 are also provided upon their outer edge with suitable apertures designed to receive the hooked terminal of the inner ends of the link-sections 7, the outer ends of said link-sections being also provided with hooked terminals designed to take into apertures provided'in the intermediate member 8, which latter maybe formed of two pieces of suitable plate metal secured together, as by the rivets or bolts 9, the upper plate being provided with a transverse rib 10, through which is adapted to loosely extend the tension-bolt 11. The tension-bolt v11 may be provided upon its outerend with the screw-head 12, the said bolt being extended through the vertically disposed plate 13, which,as will be observed,is provided with the slot 14, the purpose of said slot being to loosely receive the threaded end of the anchoringbolt 15, the inner end of said anchoring-bolt being provided with the Lshaped extension or terminal 16, which latter is adapted to engage the inner edge of the anglebar constituting the end section 1, as more clearly shown in, Fig. 2, thereby providing a reliably eiicient anchoring device for the tension-bolt 11. Inasmuch as the threaded inner end of the tension bolt 11 passes loosely through an opening afforded by the transverse rib 10, it is obvious that when the nut 17 is turned home upon said bolt the bar or plate 8 will be drawn toward theend section 1 and incidentally draw with it, through the mediation of the link section 7, the clamping plates or bars 4 and 5. Since the clampingbars 4 and 5 are rigidly secured to a contig nous part of the woven fabric 3, it is obvious that any slack in said fabric will be taken up andvdisposed between the end section 1 and said plates 4 and 5, thereby causing the portion of the fabric between the said parts to sag downward, as clearly shown in Figs. 1 and 2. It will be clearly apparent that any preferred number of pairs of clamping-plates and cooperating parts may be employed in order to produce the best results under all circumstances.

\ In Fig. 3 it will be seen that the vmember indicated by the numeral 18 represents the end section of a wooden bed-frame, the. part 19 being the end cleat, which is nailed to the member 18 after the end of the woven fabric 3 has been interposed between them in the usual manner. This portion of the drawings is designed to illustrate the use of the slot 14, formed in the plate 13, inasmuch as said slot is adapted to receive the anchoring-screw 20, entered into the cleat-section 19. The slot enables a proper adjustment of the tensionbolt 1l to be made, said slot 14 being designed. to compensate for the varying positions of said bolt, as will be readily understood.

In Fig. 4 I have shown a slightly-varied form of construction which may be adopted in some instances, and itwill be observed that by the construction employed in Fig. 4 the intermediate plate-section 8 may be entirely dispensed with, inasmuch as the U- shaped member having the threaded terminals 21 and 22 is designed to form direct connection between the clamping-plates 23 and 24 (corresponding to the clamping-plates 4 and 5 in Fig. 1) and the end of the bed-frame, said threaded terminals being designed to be extended through the hollow ribsections 25, formed transversely in the plate 24 andlocked in engagement therewith by the nuts 26, as will be obvious. Said U-shaped member is also provided at its free outer end with the downwardly-inclined section 27, form-ing a hook-like terminal, which part is adapted to hook over the end 1 or 18, as the case may be, forming the end of the frame. When, therefore, the terminal 27 is hooked over a contiguous part of the end of the frame and the threaded terminals 2l and 22, entered through the hollow rib-sections 25, the clamping-plates 23 and 24 may be readily drawn toward the head-section by means of the nuts 26, it being understood that said clampingplates shall have first been tightly clamped in engagement with a contiguous part of the Woven and sagged fabric by means of the locking-bolts 28 or the equivalent thereof.

In Fig. 5 it will be observed that the tension-bolt 11 is provided with ahook-like terminal 29, also adapted to hook over a contiguous part of the end of the bed-frame, thereby anchoring the same in position, so that the locking-nut 17 may be turned home until the requisite degree of tension has been restored to the sagging woven fabric.

In Fig. 6 it will be observed that the plate 5 may be provided upon its outer edge with an L-shaped or depending terminal 30, while the plate 4 is to it closely, so that its rear edge will be inclosed by said terminal and insure that a greater frictional grasp will be disposed upon the woven fabric interposed between said plates.

In Fig. 7 it will be seen that the upper plate 5 is provided near its central part with the longitudinally-disposed rib, (indicated bythcnumeral 31,) said rib being designed to fit a corresponding groove 32, formed in the plate 4. In like manner it will be observed in Fig. 9 that the part 33 (corresponding to the rib-section 3l) is V-shaped in character and designed to t a correspondingly-shaped groove 34, formed in the plate 4, the locking-bolt 6 and nut 6a being employed in each instance tollock said plates in close relationship to each ot er.

It will be seen from the foregoing description, considered in connection with the accompanying drawings, that I have provided an attachment of the character specified which will quickly restore a worn out bed having sagged woven-wire springs to its original rigid condition and that said springs roo vlo

may have imparted to them any desired de grec of rigidity or tension.

It will be further observed that the Various parts of my invention may be very cheaply and expeditiously manufactured and readily disposed in their operative positions by any person whether skilled in the art or not, and While I have thus described the preferred combination and construction of parts deemed necessary in carrying out my invention I desire to comprehend all possible substitutes and equivalents which may be considered as falling fairly Within the scope of myinvention.

Having thus fully described the construction and manner of using my tension attachment for Woven Wire beds, further description is deemed unnecessary.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The herein-described tension attachment for bed-springs comprising the parallel clamping-plates; means carried by the meeting surfaces of said plates adapted to frictionally engage the Woven-wire fabric interposed between them, in combination with a threaded tension-bolt; a bar slidably disposed upon the threaded end of said bolt; links connecting said bars and plates; a slotted plate carried by the inner end of said tension-bolt and means adapted to anchor the said slotted plate and bolt to the bed-rail, substantially as set forth.

2. The herein-described tension attachment for bed-springs comprising parallel clampingplates; Vmeans carried by the meeting surfaces of said plates adapted to frictionally engage the Woven wire fabric interposed between them, in combination with a threaded tension-bolt; complementary bars carried by the threaded end of said bolts and means to connect the said bars and clamping-plates and additional means carried by the free end of said bolts adapted to coperate With and engage the end of the bed-frame, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I afix my signature in presence of two Witnesses. GEORGE E. DISTELHURST.

Witnesses: f

W. H. BARNES, HORACE O. GosoRN. 

